When dams were built along the river to power mills, the salmon runs began to die. And, by 1814, they had virtually stopped.
In a 2009 file photo, Noah H. Richardson of Shelburne, a fish counter at the Robert E. Barrett Fishway looks at the first Salmon in the viewing window on Wednesday. The fishway opened for viewing on Wednesday. Stand Alone feature. The Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Commission is due to receive a report in October to outline options for the future of the salmon restoration efforts.
For no lack of trying, the nearly half-century-old federal effort to restore Atlantic salmon, nicknamed "king of the game fish," to their historic home on the Connecticut River has all but ended.
On July 10, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the agency would end its involvement in the program, which began in earnest in 1967, because returns of salmon to spawn on the river have been so poor.
However, Massachusetts wildlife officials, who had their own salmon program for nearly as long, have not given up.
"The Connecticut River salmon restoration is not over," said Caleb H. Slater, head of the anadromous fish program for the division. "The effort is run by the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Commission, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is one member of the commission."
At the commission's last meeting, after the federal agency announced it would drop out, a study was ordered to lay out options for the remaining members during the next meeting, which will take place in October, Slater said.
"Massachusetts will not make any decision about our salmon (program) until we have had a chance to see the (still-to-be-completed) report," Slater said.
When the Connecticut River Valley was home to the Pocumtuck and Nipmuc Indians, tens of thousands of salmon may have returned upriver each spring to spawn, becoming a dependable source of food for native Americans and the first European settlers.
However, when dams were built along the river to power mills, the salmon runs began to die. And, by 1814, they had virtually stopped.
Since World War II, more than $80 million has been spent for marine research laboratories, salmon-fry hatcheries, fish ladders and fish lifts at dams and for other construction and manpower to encourage Atlantic salmon to once again spawn on the Connecticut River.
The strategy was to raise young salmon from the eggs of females captured on other New England rivers, release them in the shallow tributaries of the Connecticut so they would "imprint" on the river. Then, when they traveled out to sea to grow for two years, they would be driven to return to the Connecticut to spawn when that time came.
Indeed, it was once hoped that 10,000 a year would return, creating a fabulous fishery for anglers and adding to local economies. But, in the last 45 years, only about 6,000 - in total - have ever returned.
In 1981, 529 were counted, the high for any year, and it was hoped that the runs would only grow from there. But instead, they diminished. In 1983, only 39 were recorded, the low for any year since 1981. This year, only about 50 were counted.
This is despite the release of nearly 100 million young salmon in the river's tributaries through the years by state and federal wildlife agencies.
What went wrong?
Kenneth I. Sprankle, the Connecticut River coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Sunderland, said, "Salmon restoration was very complicated. We lost the Connecticut River strain of salmon. That strain evolved over thousands of years to be suited to the environment of a particular river system."
The young whose parentage traced to other New England rivers never seemed to thrive on the Connecticut River, he said.
Also, there was an abrupt change in the survival rate of young salmon at sea, he said.
"Half a salmon's life is spent out at sea, and marine survival has been a problem. It was far better before about 1990, when we started to see a dramatic decline in marine survival," Sprankle said.
The reason why young salmon are dying at sea is not clear, he said.
"But it's something that is not unique to Connecticut River salmon. It's been observed for salmon up through Maine," he said.
Slater agrees that marine survival has been an unexpected problem.
"Lately it has become apparent that the Atlantic Ocean is not supporting salmon. Runs in Maine have been listed as endangered. Runs in Canada and Europe are also doing poorly. The encouraging return rates that we were seeing in the 1980s have crashed and remained low. We continue to hope that the ocean conditions will improve and the return rates increase," he said.
The Robert Barrett Fishway in Holyoke, operated by the municipal power company there, reported in May that it expected a record number of migrating fish to pass through its facility over the Holyoke Dam this year, 352,035; the vast majority of those fish, though were American shad.
Barrett Fishway records show the number of Atlantic salmon passing through the ladder had reached some 368 in 1992, but only 41 were recorded in 2010.